HRE4 News:
Workshop and Peta4 launch draw near

Dear <<First Name>>,

HRE4 is coming towards the end of its first year and I’m happy to say that we are making some great progress. Our first public results will be launched at the beginning of March at an open workshop in Brussels, which has almost 100 people registered attendees already. We hope to see you all there!

Having set the bar high in 2016, this year will see an increase in our dissemination activities as more results become available. The HRE consortium and I look forward to sharing more and more of our work with you in the coming months.
Kind regards,

David Connolly
HRE Coordinator

Latest News

Inivtation to the HRE4 project workshop on 7 March (Brussels, Belgium)
In a step towards identifying the most economically feasible and technologically effective pathway to decarbonisation by 2050, Heat Roadmap Europe 4 will host a Workshop on March 7 in Brussels (Belgium). It will be a great opportunity to get the first package of insights for the 14 HRE countries, which together account for approximately 90% of total heating and cooling in Europe. Workshop attendees will learn about the different types of heating and cooling demand and supply, the amount of heating and cooling potential and where it is located. Leading experts will explain how policy-makers, local authorities and industry representatives can use the HRE4 results to their benefit and will help identify the next steps and optimal solutions to decarbonise the heating sector. National and regional governments are invited to attend to discuss and engage in the HRE process.

We are eager to receive feedback and discuss how policy and decision makers and industry representatives can use the HRE4 results to their benefit and help decarbonise the heating and cooling sector on a local, national and European scale. At the networking cocktail, participants will toast to the launch of the Pan-European Thermal Atlas and exchange views in a casual and atmosphere.

Final touches to Peta4 We are happy to announce that we are putting the finishing touches to the interactive version of the fourth Pan-European Thermal Atlas (Peta 4) in time for the workshop mentioned above. Peta 4 covers the 14 EU member states that are part of the Heat Roadmap Europe 4 project. The aim of Peta 4 is on one side to supply specific and realistic heat demand data by costs of infrastructure development and access to renewable energy sources, and on the other to facilitate dissemination of the conditions to develop DHC solutions across Europe.

Currently, Peta 4_v1.0 contains a 100m resolution grid of the modelled heat demand in 2015, a layer showing city areas where district heating systems exist in these countries, as well as a database of modelled excess heat supply. Compared to Peta 3, Peta 4 covers more of Europe at a higher resolution, and includes more information on excess heat facilities and existing district heating systems while allowing for better viewing, sharing and communication of smart heating solutions for Europe. The Peta 4 Atlas is being published using ArcGIS Online, and will be the launched at the workshop described above. Participants will be introduced to the platform and shown how it can be used.

Detailed profiling of Europe’s heating and cooling sector for 2015
We are also pleased to announce that the work on how heating is being used in Europe is also developing in time for the HRE4 Workshop. In order to create comprehensive heating and cooling strategies in HRE, an in-depth profile of the heating and cooling sector is required. Unfortunately, only a few EU countries include the end-uses such as space heating, mechanical energy or lighting, in their national energy balances.

Addressing this gap, project partners Fraunhofer ISI, TEP Energy, Utrecht University and Armines have calculated a complete heating and cooling end-use energy balance for all EU countries for 2015, distinguishing major end-uses such as space heating or process heating as well as temperature levels for process heat. The results of this profiling allow for detailed analyses of individual countries and sectors as well as cross-country comparisons. In previous years heating and cooling roughly equaled 50% of the EU’s total final energy demand, varying little with weather conditions. Results for 2015 show a total heating and cooling final energy demand of about 6600 TWh. Of this, more than 50% is used to satisfy space heating needs, but also about 30% for process heating, mostly in energy intensive industries such as steel, cement, chemicals or paper production.

Coming soon: cooling equipment efficiency towards 2050
Although heating is relatively well known and studied, information on cooling is often difficult to find, as there are no or limited statistics in the EU. As part of profiling of thermal demand in Europe, consortium research partner Armines is putting together a stock model of cooling equipment based on information available on the history of volume and efficiency of product sales in the 14 MS of the HRE project. This prospective reference scenario for energy efficiency and costs of cooling equipment will be used as a starting point to evaluate the impacts of cooling until 2050, and to compare solutions to cut consumption and GHG emissions. These inputs will further be used to map the cooling demands, to further profile energy savings, and to supplement energy modeling.

HRE4 2016: A thriving dissemination year in review
As a new year kicks off we look back on a thriving 2016, during which the project benefited from ample visibility, with project partners spreading the HRE4 messages to the broader audience throughout Europe and across the globe.

Over 30 international and national conferences were attended, where consortium members held academic and general presentations to share HRE4 experiences and findings. In addition, many interesting meetings with lead-users from national associations and industry also took place last year. Project partners and interested parties shared knowledge and explored opportunities for accelerating the uptake of low carbon and energy efficient heating and cooling.

A big thanks to all partners, our heating-cooling and energy colleagues and associates for your hard work. The bar has been set high, and we look forward to another promising year ahead!

Relevant publications

Efficient district heating and cooling systems in the EU Case studies analysis, replicable key success factors and potential policy implications (Dec 2016)
Based on a holistic case studies analysis of 8 efficient district heating and cooling (DHC) systems in different European Member States, the JRC Science Hub study identifies the key factors enabling to develop high quality, efficient and low-carbon DHC systems, discusses how these key success factors can be replicated in the EU and provides a better view on the role and features of these systems. Finally, it suggests some potential policy guidelines to support their deployment. Of particular importance to the HRE audience is the emphasis on "coherent urban planning, including heat mapping " as a key success factor for DHC in three of the case studies.

Overview of EU support activities and projects on energy efficiency and renewables in the heating and cooling sector (2016)
An overview of the European Union-funded projects in the area of heating and cooling which are supporting EU strategy. It focuses on the Horizon 2020 programme (2014-2020) and its predecessors: the former Seventh Framework (FP7) and Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programmes. This publication has been drafted with contributions from the Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprise (EASME), the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), the Directorate General for Energy (DG ENERGY) and the Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD). For details on Heat Roadmap Europe, see pages 18, 23, 74-75.